Eclipse Series
__FORCETOC__ The Eclipse line is a sub-set of the Criterion Collection. It focuses on budget-priced box sets grouping hard to find films from the Festival. The Eclipse line is aimed at producing DVD versions of worthwhile films that might not otherwise be eligible or selected for the main collection. Series 1 - Forum Film Festival 1: Lovers & Misfits This first Eclipse release features five of Forum Film Festival 1's finest films. These long lost classics are amongst the best remembered of the very first festival. Each is a story of social struggle and disillusion from various perspectives (including scorned lovers, post-apocalyptic stragglers and a down-and-out addict). Alcoholics Anonymous'' (jmp310)' This Tom Hanks starrer was the first Best Picture winner. It featured Hanks as a struggling alcoholic trying to keep his marriage and life together. In addition to Best Picture the film won Best Supporting Actress in a tie (Laura Linney) and was nominated for Best Actor (Hanks), Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris & Samuel L. Jackson) and Original Screenplay. 'Love in the Time of Cholera (Cifra2)' This adaptation of the classic novel was, unlike its Mike Newell successor, a complete smash. Stunning, haunting and unforgettable it is one of the first festival's greatest love stories. The film won the FFF Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for six others: Best Picture, Best Director (Bernardo Bertolucci), Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem), Original Score, Cinematography and Art Direction. '''The Outcast Parade A sci-fi classic, this story told of a band of outcasts led by Russell Crowe and Hayley Joel Osment struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. It set the stage for many science fiction classics to come. We Float (Hiler) This blistering romance took love in the opposite direction of Cholera: hard hitting, painful and frightening, but none-the-less beautiful. Nominated for 10 FFF Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Zemeckis), Actor (Tobey Maguire), Actress (Susan Sarandon), Supporting Actress (Anna Chlumsky), Original Screenplay, Original Score and Emily Watson won the award for Best Supporting Actress (in a tie). The Wheel (Andy Hall) Set amidst a traveling fair, this story told of an older couple and their rediscovery of romantic passion. The film was nominated for, and won, three FFF Awards: Best Actress (Meryl Streep), Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes) and Best Supporting Actor (Tom Wilkinson). Available on DVD for $49.95 MSRP. Series 2 - Forum Film Festival 2: Secrets & Sorrows Building on the first Eclipse series' celebration of FFF originals, the second series looks to FFF2. Though very little is know about the festival, the records being lost, the Criterion archivists have discovered these four films and prepared them for this Eclipse release. Lost Honor (Mattais) Adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisted, this Mike Nichols film is set in post-Jazz age Paris. Dennis Quaid plays a distraught, alcoholic father seeking to regain custody of his daughter a year after his wife's death. He wanders Paris battling his inner demons, attempting to prove to his sister-in-law (Annette Benning) that he is a fit and worthy parent. Mattais and Nichols would later re-team for another Fitzgerald adaptation, FFF9's Built it Up. The film was nominated for several FFF Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Quaid) and Best Supporting Actress (Benning). Night Watch (Unknown) Martin Scorsese won his first and only FFF Award for this gritty tale of a good cop and his wild, corrupt superior (Supporting Actor winner Gene Hackman). Held together by a gripping mystery and razor-sharp dialogue, the film is taken to the next level by Scorsese. Hackman's iconic performance as the evil-but-winning police commander is one of the greatest the festival has seen. In addition to its wins for Scorsese and Hackman, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and several other awards. Stairway to Heaven (Andy Hall) Sam Mendes directed future-wife Kate Winslet in this devastating melodrama about a woman dying of AIDS. Battling the clock as she slowly fades away, Winslet riveted Festival goers and took home the Best Actress trophy in the process. With supporting turns from Jude Law and Michael Caine, the film marked the first entry into a genre that Hall would later perfect. The film was also nominated for several awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The Story of My Wife (Artimus Zeln) The second suburban melodrama in a row to win Best Picture, and currently the last, this Todd Field film chronicled a man's (Ed Harris) life in the two weeks immediately following his wife's (Frances McDormand) death. As he turns to acquaintances new, psychiatrist Tom Wilkinson, and old, police officer Hilary Swank, answers are nowhere to be found. Harris won Best Actor for his heartbreaking turn and Field won Best Original Screenplay in addition to being nominated for Best Director. Wilkinson and Swank were nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively. Available on DVD for $39.95 MSRP. Series 3 - Forum Independent Film Festival 1: Murder, Mystery, Models & Montréal Originally an attempt at celebrating lesser, more inexpensive works, the Forum Independent Film Festival proved to be a breeding ground for powerful and compelling films on par with their "normal" Festival counter parts. Eclipse Series 3 celebrates the best received and most successful films of the inaugural FIFF. Including the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay nominees, this set presents the five most nominated films together for the first time on DVD. Document Q (Dent) Winning four FIFF Awards including Best Picture, Dent's classic mystery-adventure epic continues to intrigue viewers with is shadowy secrets and Biblical MacGuffin. Adventure ensues when two would-be thieves (Emily Blunt and Paul Rudd) attempt to steal an ancient manuscript from an ominous mansion, culminating with a Indiana Jones-esque night club brawl. The film's witticisms and thrills made it an instant classic. Nominated for 10 FIFF Awards, the film won Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Ensemble and tied for Best Supporting Actress Emma Thompson. Don't Wait Up (Kyle Jobin) Building on his previous horror success, Kyle Jobin officially broke out with this babysitting-job-gone-horribly-wrong thriller. Haley Bennett stars as a 20-something baby-sitter who finds herself forced to protect the child she promised she would from things she never imagined. What seems to be a straight forward slasher quickly becomes a mind bending labyrinth of mystery, culminating in one of the festival's most intriguing finales. The film was nominated for 7 FIFF Awards including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor (Gattling Griffith). Seizonsha (Budd Guy) Taking home the most FIFF Awards of any film, six, this Takashi Miike helmed J-horror delighted audiences with its gleefully gruesome tone and deeply disturbing themes. When a group of students are stuck inside a high school during the outbreak of a deadly virus, all hell breaks loose. Miike took home the Best Director prize for his work and the film won five more of its 10 nominations. The Snow is So Merciless on Poor Old Montréal (Mattais) Set over a few days of heavy snowfall in picturesque Montréal, Canadian Denys Arcand's film astutely explores the weight and darkness of one French/English family in Canada's French province. Weighed down by the death of her husband, Isabelle (Marie-Josee Croze) struggles to connect with her French speaking daughter (Ellen Page) and the dark void in the middle of their family. Page won the award for Best Supporting Actress (in a tie) and two other awards from a total of eight nominations (including Best Director and Best Screenplay). Still. (Ciro Di Lella) Daring to humanize the often mocked world of male modeling, Ciro Di Lella's Best Picture nominee followed the emotional struggles of Louis Garrell's Tristan in the aftermath of his lover's death. Quietly devastating, Garrell won Best Actor for his turn and the film was nominated for four other awards including Best Picture, Screenplay, Supporting Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Cinematography (Eric Gautier). Available on DVD for $49.95 MSRP.